The Washington Times has the story of Maudie Cecilia Hopkins, late of Lexas, Arkansas, who just died at the age of 93. She married William Cantrell, a veteran of the Civil War, in 1934 as a teenager: "Mr. Cantrell had served in the 7th Virginia Infantry, and the aging veteran first hired Maudie Acklin to cook for him and do his laundry. As time passed and he became more feeble, he asked her to move in with him; when Miss Acklin declined, for reasons of propriety, he suggested that they marry, saying he would deed his house and lot to her if she would. They were married in August 1934 in Baxter County, Ark., when he was 86. Their married life continued until he died in 1937. Mrs. Hopkins, a charming lady with sparkling eyes, always described Mr. Cantrell as "a good man, a nice man, a respectable person. He was good to me and I was good to him. I treated him just like a baby." Money was tight, she used to say: "we had a good life, but it was hard. He got a veteran's pension. Sometimes it was $25 a month; sometimes it just came every two or three months. That made life hard. But we were happy."Rico says it's even better than the book by Allan Gurganus.
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